This invention relates to the art of retail checkout stations and, more particularly, to a system of detecting a non-scan at a retail checkout station.
It is well known that shrinkage is a significant problem in the retail industry. It has been observed that a large proportion of retail shrinkage is a result of cashier fraud. Current methods to detect cashier fraud depend on human supervision. Human supervision is both costly and non-scalable as the number of cashiers increases. Even without considering labor and scalability issues, some types of cashier fraud, such as “non-scans” are difficult for humans to detect.
A non-scan occurs when a cashier intentionally fails to scan, often referred to as “sweet hearting” or unintentionally, i.e., accidentally, fails to properly pass a product over a barcode scanner region of the checkout station. In general, there are two methods by which intentional non-scans are committed. The first method involves positioning a product so that a product barcode is pointed away from the scanner. An alternative method is to cover the barcode so that the scanner is unable to detect it. To the casual observer, a non-scan appears to be a legitimate scan. Unintentional non-scans typically result from a lack of attention on the part of the cashier.
A human might perhaps detect intentional and unintentional non-scans by being extremely vigilant or through the aid of a video surveillance system with cameras positioned over the barcode scanners. In either case, detection requires careful observation of the cashier, either directly or via captured images. Thus, a single individual would only be able to monitor one cashier or camera at a time to detect fraud. In order for such a system to be cost-effective, on average each cashier would have to contribute to retail shrinkage at a rate greater than the pay rate of a loss prevention (LP) officer assigned to observe the cashier. An additional issue exists in the amount of tedium involved in these observations. It is unlikely that a human observer would be capable of maintaining high attention levels for extended periods.
In addition to visual monitoring, auditory monitoring is another potential method of preventing loss. Barcode scanners often emit an audible beep when a proper scan occurs. Thus, an LP officer could listen for the presence of a beep for each item being scanned. In such a case, the LP officer would need to be in close proximity to the cashier being observed, i.e., each cashier would require a dedicated LP officer. A dedicated LP officer at each checkout station would add considerably to resource allocation and in no way mitigate the tedium discussed above. Furthermore, it is often difficult or impossible to differentiate between sounds when multiple cashiers are in close proximity, or if the ambient environment is noisy.